Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The drive down US 60 to the Shaker Village gave us a preview of horse country. Many big farms are along this route. The largest was Ashland that stretched on for several miles. We arrived just in time for several programs.
Our first stop was the Meeting House where the Shakers held group events. There one of the docents gave a brief talk on Shaker history and beliefs, focusing on music and dance. Originally (early 1800’s) the music was in ‘tongues” and the singer went into wild gyrations, hence the name Shakers. Within a few years the music was put to words. The docent, Donna, gave demonstrations of the early tongues, music, and movements. The movements quickly evolved into more traditional dance steps. Donna sang and danced to several hymns in the traditional fashion. This was quite a show as she has an outstanding voice.
Some of the Shakers beliefs were: duality of God, both father and mother of all humans, absolute equality among the sexes and races, communal living and property, and finally total celibacy. This was a rather interesting group of diverse people who were very interested in technology. They invented the flat broom. We saw these being made in one of the craft shops. Interestingly, one of the major reasons attributed to the Shaker decline and extinction was the failure to adapt to the industrial revolution after the Civil War. The Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill disbanded in 1910, heavily in debt with only a few elderly members.
Our next stop on the tour was the Center Family Dwelling. Men and women were segregated to one side of the building. Children who came to the Society with their parents lived in separate group rooms. They had group bedrooms, 3 to a room, a communal dining room, and kitchen and food storage areas. The furniture is Spartan.
Bedroom and Office
School room for children
Communal dining area with quilt rack
There were 3 Family dwelling groups of buildings, Center, East and West. Each group had its own out buildings such as Brethren’s Shops, Sisters Shops, Wash House, and other specialized craft buildings. We visited the Brethren’s Shop,s including coopers shop where a new yolk is being crafted for the 2 new oxen and broom making shop.
Broom making shop original brethern designed equipment for flat brooms - raw materials
Coopers Shop
Cooper at work on new yolk for baby oxen
The Wash House is a separate building where all laundry was done. The Sister’s Shop had both wool spinning and rag rug weaving in progress. All the shops were in operation. The docents are masters of their crafts, making actual products that are either used in the displays or sold in the gift shops.
Spinning yarn and finished yarn died different colors
New linen dresser cloth. It takes 2 days of hard work to set this machine up!
We ended our day at the Shaker Village with a late lunch at the Shaker Village Hotel. The food was very good. We each had different entrees and only one was disappointing, chicken croquettes. We finished our meal with one of their special lemon pies. These aren’t traditional. They are 2 crust pies with a whole lemon filling. Whole lemons are sliced thin and allowed to sit overnight in sugar. To my taste they had a strong lemon sweet and sour flavor. I liked it. What I liked best was the Colonel’s Choice, an iced tea with a wee little bit of 100 proof bourbon and Cointreau. I think Donna and Pat liked it too!
The group with 7 month old steer and heifer being trained as oxen.
They will spend their entire lives as a team.
Forrest and Pat
